On Mon, Jun 14, 2021 at 02:52:03PM -0400, Carlos O'Donell via Libc-alpha wrote:
> Community,
>
> glibc was created as part of the GNU Project but has grown to operate as
> an autonomous project. As part of the GNU Toolchain the glibc stewards
> support the gcc project policy changes presented here:
> https://gcc.gnu.org/pipermail/gcc/2021-June/236182.html
>
> The glibc stewards are seeking input from developers to decide if the project
> should relax the requirement to assign copyright for all changes to the
> Free Software Foundation as follows:
>
> Contributors who have an FSF Copyright Assignment wouldn't need to
> change anything.  Contributors who wish to utilize the Developer Certificate
> of Origin[1] would add a Signed-off-by message to their commit messages.
>
> The changes to accept patches with or without FSF copyright assignment
> would be effective on August 2nd, and would apply to all open branches.
>
> The glibc stewards, like the GCC SC, continue to affirm the principles of
> Free Software, and that will never change.
>
> glibc will continue to be developed, distributed, and licensed under the
> GNU Lesser General Public License v2.1 or any later version as
> published by the Free Software Foundation.
>
> Input on this issue is accepted until July 1st 2021.

I've recently contributed a couple of patches to glibc, and the copyright
assignment was definitely a barrier.  I have no employer or university
affiliation, so copyright wasn't an issue, and I also don't mind
assigning copyright to the FSF, because regardless of everything else
that's going on, I don't believe they're going to abuse my copyright.
But even though I should be the simplest case, it still really got in
the way of my patch, because it took 14 days after I requested the form
for me to receive it, and then another 7 days after I returned it for
it to be confirmed.  That's a long time for both the reviewer and the
contributor to keep a small patch in their head!

So I'm in favour of allowing DCO.  I'd definitely have chosen it over a
copyright assignment had it been available.  I don't particularly foresee
any negative consequences that could come of it, especially since the
FSF would probably continue to hold the vast majority of the copyright
for the foreseeable future.  And I definitely think it would help get
more contributions, because I know how close I was to just giving up.

> Signed,
> Ryan Arnold
> Paul Eggert
> Jakub Jelinek
> Maxim Kuvyrkov
> Joseph Myers
> Carlos O'Donell
>
> [1] https://developercertificate.org/
>